tegrity—the account serves our purpose none the less for all that. For the beautiful surroundings of the angels are but the outward representatives of their internal states—their affections and thoughts—and are in perfect correspondence with them.
And because the Scripture is composed according to the same great law that determines the aspect of the objective world in the Hereafter, therefore the Lord's spiritual kingdom—the regenerate human soul, viewed singly or collectively—is described in the Bible by the various precious metals, innocent animals, and beautiful objects in nature; as by gold and silver; by sheep, lambs and doves; by mountains and hills and well-watered gardens; by vineyards and oliveyards, cedar-trees and the trees of lign-aloes; by a good land, "a land of water-brooks, and fountains that spring out of valleys and hills"; "a land of vines and fig-trees and pomegranates." These and other like things are often mentioned in the Word where the Lord's kingdom—the regenerate human heart—is treated of. And we cannot suppose such things were selected without a sufficient reason. They are a part of God's own Word; and when the Divine speaks or acts, it is ever according to the highest reason and perfect divine order. And the reason why such things are mentioned in the Word when the states of the regenerate are treated of, is, that they are the correspondential forms of those heavenly principles which the Lord establishes in the hearts of all whom He creates anew in his own image and likeness. And these principles, in becoming embodied under the various beautiful forms which appear in heaven, are only assuming
